Strangers in Their Own Land

2016 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR NONFICTION

"This is a smart, respectful and compelling book."
New York Times

"Strangers in Their Own Land is extraordinary for its consistent empathy and the attention it pays to the emotional terrain of politics. It is billed as a book for this moment, but it will endure."
Newsday

Remarkable. Hochschild gives a rich and vivid picture of the emotional and social life.. in the American South.”
Los Angeles Review of Books

[Hochschild’s] connection and kindness to the people she meets is what makes this book so powerful.
Minneapolis Star Tribune

"An astute study of America’s 'culture war' drawn from the perspective of the white conservatives who feel they are losing it.”
Economist

In Strangers in Their Own Land, the renowned sociologist Arlie Hochschild embarks on a thought-provoking journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou countrya stronghold of the conservative right. As she gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she famously champions, Hochschild nevertheless finds common ground and quickly warms to the people she meetsamong them a Tea Party activist whose town has been swallowed by a sinkhole caused by a drilling accidentpeople whose concerns are actually ones that all Americans share: the desire for community, the embrace of family, and hopes for their children.

Strangers in Their Own Land goes beyond the commonplace liberal idea that these are people who have been duped into voting against their own interests. Instead, Hochschild finds lives ripped apart by stagnant wages, a loss of home, an elusive American dreamand political choices and views that make sense in the context of their lives. Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in red” America. Along the way she finds answers to one of the crucial questions of contemporary American politics: why do the people who would seem to benefit most from liberal” government intervention abhor the very idea?